Laments on the Filipino Diaspora

 News
Aug 102013
 
Laments on the Filipino Diaspora

By Ricardo B. RamosPhilippine Daily Inquirer 11:47 pm | Saturday, August 10th, 2013 MAPPING of overseas Filipinos (SOURCE: Commission on Filipinos Overseas, cfo.gov.ph) My older sister, a retired doctor, recently passed away unexpectedly in Cardiff, Wales, in  the United Kingdom where she had resided for the past 25 years. She was 67 years old. Her sudden demise happened two weeks after our youngest sister, a registered nurse, was run over by a car whose driver was texting in Sydney, Australia. The saying must really be true that “when it rains, it pours.”  Our family was devastated by the tragedy. Fortunately, our “baby” sister survived the auto accident, although she was badly injured. It will take months before her spine heals. In the meantime, she cannot work and will therefore not receive any compensation from her employer. My older brother, who petitioned my sister’s migration “Down Under” more than two decades ago, took two weeks off from work to take care of her. She is a widow. The tragedy that struck our family in a span of two weeks reminded me of what happened 40 years ago in the early 1970s. Our eldest sister, who was working in Manhattan and at the same time taking her master’s degree in Columbia University,  nearly died when she was run over by a car in New York City. While she received some compensation from the insurance of the driver who nearly killed her, she was never the same again. Now at almost 70 years Read More …

Is the US immigration reform bill dead?

 News
Aug 102013
 
Is the US immigration reform bill dead?

IMFO By Lourdes Santos TancincoPhilippine Daily Inquirer 11:45 pm | Saturday, August 10th, 2013 It is hard to say exactly how many of the estimated 11 million undocumented migrants in the United States are Filipinos.  Perhaps we will never know— not until a legalization law is enacted. There are many factors that justify the passage of an immigration reform. A recent poll shows that 74 percent of registered voters favor legalization and eventual US citizenship for undocumented migrants. The Congressional Budget Office said immigration reform, as designed in Senate Bill No. 744, will grow the United States economy, and reduce the federal deficit by $158 billion over the next 10 years and $685 billion more over the following decade. The members of the US House of Representatives will go on  summer recess this month of August. While the Senate passed their version of the comprehensive immigration reform bill last June, many wonder whether the bill was dead on arrival at the House of Representatives. A companion bill to SB 744 has yet to be introduced.   Immigrants in limbo “Lucia” is one of the undocumented Filipinos who, most probably, will benefit from a legalization program. She arrived in the United States when she was 8 years old and was educated in US schools. Lucia now works as a special education teacher at her local district school. She has been teaching children with disabilities. Lucia has no legal documents. After several years working without proper legal documents, Lucia applied for an Read More …

Maltreatment at the agency

 News
Aug 102013
 
Maltreatment at the agency

Bantay OCW (Ang Boses ng OFW) By Susan KPhilippine Daily Inquirer 11:45 pm | Saturday, August 10th, 2013 Christina Rosales of Gubat, Sorsogon, related in an interview with Radyo Inquirer how her husband, Jesus, worked in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, but did not receive his salary for nine months. He had also complained that he was not fed regularly. Jesus could not take it anymore so he ran away from his employer, along with a friend, to find another job in Jeddah. Christina went to the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (Owwa) in Bicol and Manila to report the incident. She recalled her husband telling her that he was advised by someone in the consulate to run away and file charges against his employer. When he did, that same person scolded him for running away and warned him that his employer might press charges against him. Jesus was confused. Verbal abuse Christina also reported the incident to Edwin Escudero of the International Resources Development Services Agency (IRDSA), the agency of her husband. Instead of acting on her complaint about her husband’s unpaid salaries and poor working conditions, Escudero threw crude insults at her and accused her of inventing stories about her husband’s plight. Bantay OCW learned that Escudero, who had referred her husband to the agency, was not an IRDSA staff member but the personal driver of one of the agency’s owner, a certain Juno Reduca. When contacted by Bantay OCW,  Bing Gamboa, IRDSA’s recruitment officer, promised to act on Christina’s complaint Read More …

PHL works to contain huge diesel spill

 News
Aug 102013
 
PHL works to contain huge diesel spill

MANILA — Authorities said they were working Saturday to contain a huge diesel spill that shut down parts of Manila Bay’s vital fishing industry. Ryan Santos, a district official at one of the hard-hit coastal villages, said the fuel polluting the water had dissipated noticeably a day after it was released, but its pungent stench remained. “A few local fishermen are putting to sea again, but have to go much further out to reach the fish,” Santos told AFP by telephone. However, most stayed at home. “They are complaining that the slick is fouling up their boat hulls and nets,” he added. Local officials said fish and other marine life floated up dead and some residents fell sick from the fumes after an estimated 500,000 liters of the fuel cast a slick across 20-kilometres (12 miles) of coastline near the capital Manila from Thursday. The coastguard said the slick, which by Friday had covered a 300-square-kilometre area, was likely released by either a fuel depot in the area or an oil tanker that had unloaded its cargo at the terminal. The bay is the country’s most important waterway in a region where about 30 million people, nearly a third of the Philippines’ population, live. Petron Corp, the depot owner, struck a deal with the government earlier Saturday for both sides to deploy more oil containment booms and crews to speed up the clean-up, coastguard spokesman Commander Armand Balilo said. “It has been mostly contained… Our latest feedback is that some Read More …

Bicol OCD goes on red alert for Storm Labuyo, recalls fishermen

 News
Aug 102013
 
Bicol OCD goes on red alert for Storm Labuyo, recalls fishermen

As Tropical Storm Labuyo (Utor) moved close to Bicol, civil defense officials in the region went on red alert and started moves to recall the fishermen who are now at sea. Office of Civil Defense Region 5 head Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV said they had been on red alert since 10 a.m. Saturday. “Gusto namin ma-recall lahat na local fishermen na lumabas,” he said in an interview on dzBB radio. He said this aims to minimize the chances of fishermen drowning after getting caught in bad weather conditions. Alejandro said they are advising the fishermen in the region not to go out to sea until Tropical Storm Labuyo has moved away. “Huwag na lumabas hanggang lumampas ang bagyo (Don’t go out to sea until Labuyo has moved away to a safe distance),” he said. Earlier, state weather forecasters said five areas in Luzon are under Storm Signal No. 1 as Labuyo intensified. PAGASA said Labuyo packed maximum winds of 85 kph near the center and gustiness of up to 100 kph, and was moving west-northwest at 19 kph. Under Storm Signal No. 1 are Cagayan, Isabela, Aurora, Quirino and Catanduanes. — LBG, GMA News

Malaysian who escaped Abu Sayyaf flown home

 News
Aug 092013
 
Malaysian who escaped Abu Sayyaf flown home

A plantation assistant manager who was abducted along with his cousin by suspected Abu Sayyaf bandits last year finally returned to his home in Malaysia Thursday night. Chong Wei Jie, 25, is now at his family residence in Bukit Pelanduk in Port Dickson, Malaysia’s New Straits Times reported Friday. “He was flown home from Manila and arrived around 10 p.m. He was then taken to a hospital for a medical checkup before his family brought him to Port Dickson,” the report quoted state police commisioner Datuk Hamza Taib as saying. Suspected Abu Sayyaf bandits, notorious for their kidnapping activities including of foreigners, abducted Chong and his cousin Chong Wei Fei, 33, last Nov. 13 while they were at an oil palm plantation in Felda Sahabat near Tambisan in Lahad Datu. The group took the two to Jolo by boat and held them captive. Wei Jie managed to escape and was found on a highway in Pasil village in Indanan town in Sulu last Tuesday. However, he told police his cousin had died due to illness as early as April 8. — KBK, GMA News

Transfer of backhoe operator in Maguindanao massacre case opposed

 News
Aug 092013
 
Transfer of backhoe operator in Maguindanao massacre case opposed

A private prosecutor in the almost four-year-old Maguindanao massacre case, as well as the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), is fearing for the safety of the backhoe operator who buried the grisly crime’s over 50 victims after his transfer to Camp Bagong Diwa has been reportedly approved. Lawyer Prima Jesusa Quinsayas, legal counsel for the families of several journalists killed in the carnage, said Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 had ordered the transfer of Bong Andal to Camp Bagong Diwa where around 100 accused are detained. “Baka ilagay siya sa katabing cell ng principal accused. Kawawa naman considering he came out in national media and talked about how he was ordered to bury the victims,” Quinsayas told GMA News Online. Andal, chief of the equipment detachment in Maguindanao and believed to be the operator of the backhoe that dug the grave of 58 massacre victims, was arrested on November 24, 2012 in Cotabato and was later brought to Manila. Justice Secretary Leila de Lima last year said Andal’s testimony would be of great help in resolving the case being heard by the QC RTC Branch 221, which was designated as a special court exclusively handling cases related to the Maguindanao massacre. The prosecution initially requested Solis-Reyes to turn Andal into a state witness. The prosecutors, however, later withdrew their request. In explaining their decision, they said Andal would testify on things that had been covered anyway by the testimony of Read More …

SC to 2013 Bar examinees: No incorrect English, please

 News
Aug 092013
 
SC to 2013 Bar examinees: No incorrect English, please

It almost goes without saying, but the highest court in the land still included it among its tips and guidelines to those who would take the 2013 Bar examinations this October. No carabao English, please. “In many instances, incorrect English is more serious as a problem than the lack of precise knowledge of law, and has been the cause of high failure rates,” the Supreme Court noted as it urged the examinees to polish their English as much as their knowledge of laws. The proper use of English is just one of the guidelines and tips given by the high court to hopeful law graduates who would be taking the mostly-essay type Bar exams at the University of Santo Tomas. In its “Guide and Rules of Conduct to the 2013 Bar Examinations,” the Supreme Court provided Bar examinees pointers on how best to approach the examination, believed to be the most difficult among licensure examinations. “This Guide contains as well the rules that every Bar examinee should observe in his/her conduct during for the examinations for its orderly implementation, taking into account, not only the interests of the Bar examinees, but of the University hosting the examinations, the Bar personnel conducting the examinations, and the public at large,” the SC said. The SC said that since the Bar exam is 80 percent essay type and only 20 percent multiple-choice-question type, “time planning and pacing are essential.” “As a rule, five to six words per line significantly contribute to readability” of Read More …

SC allows Sharia consultant for JBC

 News
Aug 092013
 
SC allows Sharia consultant for JBC

The Supreme Court has agreed to the appointment of a Sharia consultant for the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC), the body tasked to screen and vet nominees for vacant judicial posts. In a one-page resolution, the high court sitting en banc approved a letter made by one of its members, Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, requesting that a jurisconsult in Islamic Law be tapped for the JBC. “The Court Resolved to Approve in principle the appointment of a Shari’a consultant for the JBC and a Jurisconsult in Islamic Law,” the SC said in its resolution. Court Administrator Midas Marquez was tasked to recommend within 30 days an Islamic law expert who could take on the role as Sharia consultant. Currently, the JBC has two consultants: SC Senior Associate Justices Antonio Carpio and Presbitero Velasco Jr. So far, there are only two high ranking Muslim magistrates in the Philippine judiciary, namely Court of Appeals Justices Japar Dimaampao and Hakim Abdulwahid. In his four-page letter addressed to the en banc, Leonen emphasized the importance of putting a Sharia consult for the JBC. “I have been informed that despite the presence of so many qualified experts on Shari’a Law, the court still does not have a Shari’a consultant for the JBC nor a jurisconsult. May I respectfully suggest that the Secretariat of the JBC and the Office of the Court Administrator (OCA) be tasked immediately to look into this matter,” Leonen said. Leonen said that under Article VIII of Republic Act 9054 or “An Read More …

DA chief Alcala denies knowing pork queen Napoles

 News
Aug 092013
 
DA chief Alcala denies knowing pork queen Napoles

Still denying his department’s alleged involvement in the supposed pork barrel scam, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala on Friday said he doesn’t personally know Janet Lim-Napoles, the businesswoman at the center of the issue. “Hindi ko po kilala ‘yan. Never ko pong nakilala siya, hindi ko po siya nakilala,” Alcala said in an interview on GMA News TV’s “News To Go” when asked if he knew Napoles. Napoles was accused of being the mastermind of a P10-billion pork barrel scam involving ghost projects allegedly used for kickbacks by lawmakers. Whistleblower Merlina Suñas earlier said the Department of Agriculture (DA) has been instrumental in the funneling of state funds to dummy organizations — an accusation Alcala ordered investigated. Alcala said agriculture officials who’ll be found guilty of involvement in the anomaly will be facing the full force of the law. “Ang bilin ko kung may tauhan na talagang nadawit o sinadya na palusutan ang ganitong bagay ay dapat na humanda siyang managot sa batas,” he said. In the same interview, Alcala reiterated that the DA initially refused to take projects funded by lawmakers through their pork barrel, or Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), to avoid being dragged into controversies. “Buhat po noong ako ay ma-appoint from 2010 hanggang July of 2012 wala po ni isang PDAF na dumaan sa kagawaran kasi marami pong sabi-sabi na hindi po tama, hindi maganda ito kaya iniwas ko ang department kasi masyadong marami na pong problema ang department nang abutin ko. So two years po mahigit. Read More …

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